What do we do for fun?

I used Thursday as a good warm up for the weekend by going first to Jupiter in Berkeley to catch Surrounded By Ninja’s (awesome, and a fantastic brewery to boot) and then to the Conn Yankee to catch Isabella w/ Garrin Benfield (awesome as usual, and Garrin is great addition with his powerful vocals).

On Friday evening Stiners, Rachel, and I went to the Team In Training dinner to get in the appropriate head space for the tri the next morning. We arrived a wee early, and I convinced Stina to accompany me into the Buena Vista where I quickly enjoyed one very tasty, albeit pricey, Irish Coffee. Oh man, so good. That left me with a nice warm feeling as we sat down in the banquet hall in the Fisherman’s Warf Holiday Inn. I was surrounded by many very in shape people, who seemed to be mostly female. Dinner was not so tasty, but the speeches were good and inspiring. It really hit home that no matter how much physical and mental suffering the participants are experiencing during the tri, these cancer patients experience that at a whole different level, all the time. We left after a stern warning from the head coaches that all the participants should go home and rest.

We arrived back home around 9pm, and I then loaded up the car and headed up to the Pleasure Pad to open up their benefit party. The New Up was trying to raise money to make a video to go along with their new CD. After some technical difficulties I was up and rocking the room (well, as much as general fuzz can “rock the room”) from like 10 to midnight. People started arriving around 10:30 so I did actually have a reasonably sized audience during my set. There were a couple people who were sitting with their eyes closed for like 30 minutes, really paying attention. One lady was doing practically doing yoga, which got more difficult as the night progressed and space was limited. Anyhow, it was a much better audience then I anticipated. I got a fair amount of positive feedback. No one kicked me in the balls. I gave out some CDs and cards. I wrapped it up, got out by 12:30, in bed by 1.

The alarm went off at 5, and we creakily assembled ourselves, packed up the car (like only Stina can), picked up Rachel and her gear, and headed over to Treasure Island.

It was light out by the time they got to set up their transition area. There was some drama with Rachel’s bike, where her breaks were messed up, and tires under inflated. Then after a coach over inflated a tire and tube popped, Rachel who was already fairly apprehensive about the day, hit a new low. Fortunately, many people jumped into action, triathletes were generously plying Rachel with new tubes, and it all got squared away.

Stina’s mental state had been deteriorating all week (much of Friday was spent in a overwhelmed breakdown state). Somehow she captured the same spirit she possessed on our wedding day and had transformed into a beacon of positivity. It was awesome as it was surprising. She was all smiles. She had let go of everything that was out of her control and decided to really celebrate her accomplishments. Their race didn’t start till 9:30, and we had a couple hours to kill. Haber soon appeared on the island, having dropped off Lindsey at the airport around 6am, so we had a nice little crew for some self amusement until the race started.
Randomly enough, Lindsey’s brother Doug is a professional triathelete who was competing in the pro division, which for some reason was held at noon after all the non pro’s were done.

Lars joined us around 9. We donned our custom tee-shirts, Haber doled out some good head gear, and we prepared to cheer.
So, as we often ask around the Krudden household, “What do we do for fun?”

Swim!





Bike!



Run!


Josh Cohen and Zack Shapiro joined us during the bike to help cheer everyone on. Haber had miraculously brought enough costumes for everyone. We were quite a crew, and many a biker was amused by our antics.

Both Stina and Rachel completed the tri safely and with gusto. I was overwhelmed with pride. They kicked some serious ass. Stina had a smile for me everytime I caught up with her. She hates the run, yet there she was, smiling and laughing (and wheezing), some 3 hours into her tri. It was amazing.



The cheering section celebrated with an absurd amount of Kettle Korn. We watched to pro's compete, and it was intense. Doug came in 3rd, still beating the former course record by a minute. Then Josh and Zack headed home to rest up for their half marathon they running the next day. Holy Crap!

Rachel and Jason came over to celebrate their victorious day with some Toe Jam and Earl, Pizza, and Poker. There was much humor as spirits were high. We even invented a new poker game: “do it three ways”. Stina passed out at 8. I then started a song I’m trying to throw together for a documentary about sharks.

On Sunday morning Cello Steve came over to do some recording. That went really well, but I’ve yet to review the material. That afternoon, Stiners and I went out for a walk (it was gorgeous outside), though it was more like a shuffle - she wasn’t moving so well. As we wrap up our walk I get a call from Bryan, a co-worker. He’s taking his son to a show at the Warfield, someone bailed, do I want a free ticket? My mouth says yes even though my body says no. We get back home, I finish a first pass at the song for sharks, and off I go, to see Rise Against and Thursday. I know nothing about these bands.

Bryan meets me outside and gives me a ticket. I look at it – its freaking front row, center on the balcony. Literally the best ticket you could possibly have. Sweet. Rise Against is a cross over punk band. They whip the audience into a frenzy. The floor was a giant mosh pit. The balcony is a left over most pit as the dude behind me keeps grabbing me and shaking me. It was surreal. It was my gratuitous agro show for the year. I wasn’t blown away – they aren’t breaking any new ground musically, but they certainly brought the heat. Thursday fells into the same category as punk-esque band. Too much melody and radio friendlyness to be punk, but it definetly has more mass appeal. I mean, how many punk bands have a keyboard player? They were fine, but I bailed halfway through the set. I wasn’t really feeling the agro vibe right then.